IT is an occurrence as rare as a Glasgow heatwave.

Carol Kirkwood, cheery queen of the weather forecast, is not smiling.

Breaking news, everyone – the fiendish, fast footwork of the pesky cha cha has done what even reporting in full-on blizzards and force umpteen gales has failed to do.

It has wiped the megawatt grin off her lovely face.

“It’s true,” groans the BBC Breakfast weather presenter, who is the only Scottish star competing for the glitterball on this year’s Strictly Come Dancing.

“I’m so busy worrying about which foot goes where, how to hold my head and what on earth I’m supposed to do with my arms that I forget to smile.

"And that’s really weird, because I’m always smiling….”

Carol IS always smiling, which is why she is the nation’s favourite weather presenter.

As well as her spot on Breakfast, she has presented The Weather Show for the BBC News channel and appears regularly as a reporter on The One Show.

She also presents the weather on Chris Evans’s Radio 2 Breakfast show, and the two have become firm friends, sharing a love of fast cars.

So, has she put in her CV for a presenter’s job on Chris’s big new telly project Top Gear?

“Ha!” she hoots. “I DO love fast cars and I’d love to drive them but I don’t think they’d let me.

"I went to CarFest with Chris and the team, in aid of Children in Need, and it was fantastic.

"The high performance cars are so sleek. But no, I haven’t put in my CV for Top Gear…”

Carol’s love of cars was inspired by her dad and brothers. She grew up, one of eight children, in the small community of Morar on the west coast, where her mum and dad ran the local hotel.

“My parents were quite strict so we were only allowed to watch certain things on television, educational stuff like Blue Peter and Newsround,” she explains.

“Blue Peter seemed like such a lot of fun, I wrote to the director general of the BBC to find out what I had to do to become a presenter on it.

“I got a letter back, which said – get a degree, the come back to us. So I did.”

Carol studied business at Napier College in Edinburgh (now Napier University) then joined the BBC as a production secretary.

“I never did become a Blue Peter presenter but the irony is when I present the weather for BBC Breakfast, I’m standing in the Blue Peter garden to do it,” she laughs.

“And in another weird twist of fate, my first job at the BBC was at Elstree studios in London, which is where Strictly is filmed. It’s all very bizarre.”

Despite the fear factor involved in learning the cha cha for her first dance this weekend (Strictly kicks off on Friday) Carol, who is paired with last year's champion Pasha Kovalev, is looking forward to being part of the show which dominates the Saturday night telly schedules from now until Christmas.

“I LOVE Strictly – the frocks, the fake tan, the big hair – I can’t wait,” she sighs, happily.

“It’s brilliant fun. Mind you, I think I have experienced every emotion possible since I started training.

“I go through being terrified I can’t do it, to thinking it’s the best thing since sliced bread, to panicking I’ll forget my steps, to feeling so happy I’ve got something right…

“Pasha is such a darling though – he is firm but fair and so patient, thank God. I’ve never done this before, aside from shimmy about all over the shop on the dancefloor at Scottish weddings, and it’s weird – I can visualise it all in my head but when it comes to translating it to my feet, that’s a whole other matter…”

She is most looking forward to learning how to do a ‘proper waltz’ but the thought of the Argentine tango is keeping her awake at night.

“I love the grace and elegance of the waltz, so I hope I get to do that, but the Argentine tango, with all those flicks and kicks – eek,” she groans. “Pasha is going to be black and blue.”

Carol has said she would love to get to the final, so with Scotland’s hopes resting on her sequinned shoulder straps, is she up to the task of being the country’s first winner?

“Oh that would be wonderful, but honestly? I’m 53, and so are my hips and knees, so I really don’t think that’s going to happen,” she laughs. “But I’m not afraid of hard work, so I’m just going to give it my best shot and see how it goes.”

As she disappears off to training with a merry wave, the nation can heave a sigh of relief. The clouds have cleared and Carol’s brilliant beam is back....